Christian-Democrats Refrain from Clear-Cut Position on Boycott

Leader of the Christian-Democratic Party, Giorgi Targamadze, was booed by protesters outside the parliament, when he again sidestepped from direct answer whether he was joining the opposition boycott of the parliament or not.

The nine-party opposition bloc called on all opposition parties to sign a joint memorandum undertaking commitment to boycott the new parliament, which the opposition says is illegitimate as it was elected through ballot fraud.

The Labor Party leader, Shalva Natelashvili, whose party also cleared the 5% threshold, said earlier on May 26 that his party was joining the memorandum.

Speaking at a protest rally outside the Parliament Giorgi Targamadze, the leader of Christian-Democratic Party said he mainly agreed with the memorandum, but also added that “some of the provisions of the memorandum” needed more discussions and more talks with other opposition parties. Remarks triggered protesters discontent and Targamadze was wooed. After that Targamadze reiterated his party’s earlier statement and said that the Christian-Democratic Party was not going “to enter the one-party parliament along with the [ruling] National Movement [Party].”

In the same statement issued on May 24 the Christian-Democratic Party, however, also questioned the effectiveness of the boycott tactic, citing that there was no unanimous position among the opposition over this matter.

On May 24 the Christian-Democratic Party also said that although it would join the protest rallies, it was not “take political responsibility over the possible negative results of the rally, as we believe that street rallies are not appropriate means for changing the government and the wave of protests is not strong enough at the moment.”